Positive update on Sexton and Kearney

Earlier this week it was claimed that the Leinster and Ireland full back would have to undergo surgery on the bicep injury that he sustained in the win over Italy in Rome.

However speaking after Friday's open training session in Monaghan Ireland head coach, Joe Schmidt, had a very different take on the situation.

"He's hitting all his markers," he said.

"We're probably quietly confident there more than overtly confident. As long as he keeps going in the direction he's going we'd hope that he takes full part in training on Tuesday and we'll get confidence from that and so will he.

"He has a tendon injury just at the base of his bicep. We've just got to see how it reacts to all the demands that he will have of his bicep.

Johnny Sexton, who missed the last two Six Nations matches with a calf injury, did some work away from the squad on Friday - Schmidt says he should be able to train fully next week but sounded a word of caution.

"He's hitting all his markers, he ran well today.

"It's an incremental thing. He did some high speed running today. He'll do some volume running over the week-end. He should be able to go in and out of training on Monday and train fully on Tuesday.

"Those are the markers he has to hit and he's hit them comfortably so far. We're not trying to over accelerate that. We're just being a little bit cautious.

"We'll know by Thursday because if he completes training on Tuesday he'll know that he's set to go.